YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Before Ellen Degeneres bought up the properties that comprise her current Zorada Drive compound in the Hollywood Hills, she purchased another cluster of four houses that hugged the hills along Woodrow Wilson Drive and Woodstock Road above Laurel Canyon. She's unloaded two of those houses, including selling one of the properties, dubbed "The Treehouse," in June 2006 to Brokeback Mountain actor Heath Ledger and his blond, mousy wife Michelle Williams for $2,300,023.

Your Mama can barely keep up with the number of properties that residential real estate mogul currently owns, has on the market, recently purchased, or recently sold. With all the buying, selling, renovating, and decorating, it's a miracle the lesbian lady has the time to host her Emmy winning talk show.

Purchased in April of 2004 for an undisclosed sum of money, MizDegeneres was said to have purchased this property–along with two others on Woodrow Wilson Drive–because it overlooked her primary residence on Woodstock Road. In the pre-Portia days, Your Mama remembers hearing grapevine gossip (gossip children, only gossip) that MizDegeneres moved her ex-ladyfriend out of the Woodstock Road house and into one of the houses along Woodrow Wilson, possibly this one. Now, we have no idea if that's true or not, so don't go repeating that information as if it's the gospel.

Anyhoo, we see that this modestly sized house is every bit as well renovated and furnished as all the other Degeneres properties. Your Mama confesses: we are a sucker for a property that has been worked over by MizDegeneres and her team of architects, designers, and gay interior decorators. We can't help but swoon over soaring ceilings, tall gallery white walls, a lovely art collection, and carefully chosen and sparsely placed furniture that successfully straddles the fine line between contemporary and warm.

The white box living room, with it's sky high ceiling, functions almost like a huge porch with a wall of windows on one side that overlooks the canyon, and a sliding wall of glass on the other that opens the house to a courtyard. The courtyard has been meticulously but simply landscaped to include an old-school cement dining patio and a small, well tended patch of grass. Your Mama would have preferred to see a wee plunge pool wedged into the courtyard, but alas.

In the dining area we find a picnic table which we're quite certain has some sort of pedigree that makes it cost $9,000 or some other large amount of money. It appears that the table top has been fitted with a delicious white Corian. Ya'll can skewer Your Mama for saying so, but we like the informality and social dynamic of a picnic table, and it warms the cockles of our cold heart to see a picnic table used so cleverly and effectively indoors. MizDegeneres and her retinue of decorators put an identical picnic table in one of her houses on Zorada Drive, which we also raved over and then received an email box full of scoffs and guffaws about.

Into the kitchen and we find a small and immaculate cooking station that is appointed with butcher block counters, a small Viking range, and a gorgeous glass fronted SubZero refrigerator. We know many people do not like these fancy glass fronted cold boxes because they allow guests to see right into the cluttered shelves and notice the molding left overs that never got eaten. But Your Mama, an aficionado of well ordered and organized pantries and refrigerators, is not afraid. We spend far too much time standing in front of an open refrigerator and in our pantry removing price tags, turning all products face forward, grouping products by type, and tossing out anything that even looks remotely un-fresh. Call us crazy, but any one of you could walk into the pantry of Your Mama and the Dr. Cooter's beach house and find what you need with almost no effort.

Please note that in the study, a painting that looks suspiciously like a Picasso hangs overs the the settee that is covered in a stunning caramel colored buttery leather. That can't really be a Picasso, can it? Any art history lovers out there want to weigh in on this one?

The back of the house hangs over the canyon and several decks provide quiet spots re-enact scenes from Rapunzel and Romeo and Juliet, or just sit and listen to the whisper of the wind through the eucalyptus trees. Of course, Your Mama would have to wrap those decks in chicken wire to keep keep our 8 pound long bodied bitches Linda and Beverly from accidentally falling over the edges, but even still, we like these dangerous for dogs decks.

In addition to this property, the MizDegeneres and DiRossi's have placed one of their Zorada Drive houses on the market for $2,300,000.

UPDATE: This property was purchased by soap stud Adrian Bellani (Passions, Guiding Light, RPM Miami) in September 2007 for $1,995,000.

18 comments:

Phoenix
said...

Nice article Mama, and another nice Ellen Degeneres makeover indeed. Nobody does it as consistently well as her. The picnic table does look interesting and good, but I'd probably have to change it out for something more mundane to use on a daily basis. A hard seat with no back support while eating would get old fast for me. Note to those who write complaining emails to Mama: :::rolling my eyes:::

her properties always look amazing - i wonder how hands on she really is during refurbs? i mean, she tapes her show 4 days a week & then all the other recordings / photo shoots / interviews etc.. that are required of her ... has she sold her montecito estate or is it still on the market?

I so often don't like the kitchens in the houses that I read about here so religiously. I guess it's because the stars don't really eat. However, I like this kitchen. I decided it was because of the butcher block counters and the cabinets seem to have a reverse paint job.

I do love Corian, though. Give it to me anyday above marble on kitchen countertops.

Now every time I watch Ellen's show, thoughts of these properties float through my mind.

it's definitely Guernica by picasso...but is definitely a litho or print or something to that effect. the original is huge and is in the reina sofia museum in spain. and yes, i have a degree in art history (which leaves me without a job and just enough time to answer questions about random art...)

I'm absolutely coveting this house. There is not one thing I'd want to change. As a dyed in the wool Connecticut Yankee, this house seems the essence of California to me. Now if I could scrape up the cash for a second home...

I love all of her properties and this one especially. The simplicity of the place is great. The picnic table is cool, although I can see how a chair back would be needed. Now when I see those cheapo picnic tables I think of the elegant possibilities. Love the simple kitchen with the butcher block counters and what look to be refaced cabinets with stainless doors. Love it all.

Yes, the house doesn't have much curb appeal, but it's very private and secure which are good things. A new front gate, a new garage door, and some paint are the tickets. Inside, the place is perfection. And the price seems fair, in a ridiculous way.